Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba has bought a new domain name, 1688.com, for the launch of its new online wholesale business.

According to information from the domain name enquiry tool Whois, the current owner of 1688.com is Alibaba.com. The link leads to a page which says Alibaba will soon launch its 1688.com wholesale mart and the company will invest CNY100 million to promote this service via China Central Television.

In addition, Alipay.com, Alibaba's Internet payment subsidiary, has reportedly acquired the domain names of Zhifubao.com and Zhifu.com and is expected to put these new domains into use in the near future.